# Stem Material-How to ID?!?



## BrewShooter (Mar 17, 2011)

Is there an easy way to determine if my stems are vulcanite or lucite? I mean, some of the colorful lucite ones are obvious, but most of my pipes have black stems. I know at least one of them is vulcanite, as it was in the description when I purchased it. To be clear, I don't care if I have vulcanite stems. I just want to know which ones I should be paying a little more attention to.


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## Nachman (Oct 16, 2010)

When you put the stem in your mouth you can tell. They feel different and when a lucite stem hits your teeth it makes a click sound. If it is a pipe you don't want to put in your mouth you can tap it with your fingernail and see if it clicks. Short of that, smoke it for a year or so and see if the stem gets dull looking. If it does it is vulcanite. If not it is lucite.


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## jwreed81 (Jun 9, 2011)

I buy estate pipes, so I can use the oxidation on the stem to tell, or put some alcohol on it to make it apparent. 

Because I'm restoring estate pipes I expect to clean the stems thoroughly, therefore I don't mind causing some oxidation to happen in order to tell the difference. 

The vulcanite stems, no matter what, I'll end up scrubbing with toothpaste, polishing, and buffing with carnuba, so causing a reaction just helps me identify which stems are vulcanite faster.

In order to cause the reaction I just put some vodka on the stem - if it smells awful and changes color, that the oxidation on a vulcanite stem. Now I'll clean it with the method mentioned above, or skip the toothpaste for lucite.

At least it's always worked for me :lol:


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## karatekyle (Nov 2, 2010)

Yeah, you can tell by smell and feel. Basically, vulcanite is more like rubber. Its softer, heavier and duller. Lucite is more like plastic. Its lighter, harder and shinier.


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## RJpuffs (Jan 27, 2008)

Bite into the bit GENTLY - or hold the pipe clenched with teeth. If you get an indentation, its Vulcanite. Just don't bite too hard or it may be a permanent dent. And yes, the "clunk" test also works.


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## Senator (Feb 8, 2008)

Smell will tell you instantly but it's hard to distinguish with a polished cold stem.

Here's the trick:

Twist the stem back and forth quickly enough in the shank to generate a little heat...maybe 7-10 times...remove stem immediately and smell the tenon. You should be able to smell rubber quite easily at this point if it's vulcanite. You want to do this gently enough so that you avoid breaking the stem...and I would not recommend doing this to a pipe on a regular basis.

If twisting the stem like this scares you, another method is to put the stem in the sun just long enough for it to heat up a little....won't take much time at all. You will be able to smell the rubber odour if it's vulcanite.

There you go!!!


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## BrewShooter (Mar 17, 2011)

Thanks guys! The one pipe I know is vulcanite does get an ever so slight rubber/sulfur smell when warm. I suspect I have a couple other stems that are vulcanite as well. I'll go ahead and tap, prod and sniff them to see if I can figure it out.


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## CWL (Mar 25, 2010)

Pretty much every black stem I've ever seen is made with vulcanite, the only acrylics have been colored so it hasn't been that difficult for me.

If i ever needed to determine a stem, the acrylic feels more like holding glass between my teeth while vulcanite feels like plastic.


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## CaptainEnormous (Sep 30, 2010)

CWL said:


> Pretty much every black stem I've ever seen is made with vulcanite, the only acrylics have been colored so it hasn't been that difficult for me.
> 
> If i ever needed to determine a stem, the acrylic feels more like holding glass between my teeth while vulcanite feels like plastic.


+1 on the glass comparison. . .acrylic isn't _that_ hard, but on a spectrum between glass and car tire, Acrylic is closer to glass while Vulcanite/Ebonite is closer to tire.

-1 for saying every black stem is Vulcanite. I have two Il Ceppos and a Mastro de Paja that use black lucite/acrylic bits. It might be more accurate to say: if your pipe is from a large manufacturer and machine made, a black stem likely means Vulcanite. If your pipe is hand made, a black stem could be anything, but (in my experience) is most often Acrylic.

In terms of pricing (considering materials cost and time spent):
- German Ebonite from rod stock--crazy expensive Vulcanite, which doesn't oxidize as fast as other Vulcanites and gets used on only the best pipes. 
- Acrylic/Lucite from rod stock--less expensive, but it's really hard so it can take some extra tooling to do this well.
- Acrylic from pre-molded blanks--saves some shaping time, each blank costs about 5x what a Vulcanite blank does
- Vulcanite from blanks--standard "replacement stem" material, lots of variety/variation.


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## CWL (Mar 25, 2010)

CaptainEnormous said:


> -1 for saying every black stem is Vulcanite. I have two Il Ceppos and a Mastro de Paja that use black lucite/acrylic bits. It might be more accurate to say: if your pipe is from a large manufacturer and machine made, a black stem likely means Vulcanite. If your pipe is hand made, a black stem could be anything, but (in my experience) is most often Acrylic.
> .


OK CaptainE, ya gots me!

I did say "I've ever seen", but I should have added YMMV at the end of my sentence!


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## Nachman (Oct 16, 2010)

I have a $70 Nording with a black lucite stem, but Nording does some nice things with lower priced pipes.


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